Rig'n'Roll is the upcoming installment in the famous Hard Truck line-up, which also includes such games as Hard Truck and Hard Truck 2: King of the Road. In the new Simulation game you will be able to drive a truck yourself hauling a wide variety of goods (200+) across The Golden State trying to sign the most beneficial contracts and increase your profits. Though the main goal of the game is to develop your own transportation company what will require hiring additional truckers to help you in delivering cargo and becoming the Best Transportation Enterprise of California.

Surely, there are certain dangers, which you will have to face and deal with, as well as many cool options allowing you to upgrade and customize your trucks, their bodies and interiors. Californian landscapes were carefully reconstructed in Rig'n'Roll. The game will support day & night cycles and changing weather conditions, which reflect those you can usually meet in California. We addressed our questions about the game to Igor Belago – the Development Team Leader.

- Greetings! Please, introduce yourself!

- Hello! My name is Igor Belago and I’m the Leader of the team which has developed the whole Hard Truck series.

- What recent news about SoftLab-NSK can you share with us?

- Our team is the virtual reality division of the SoftLab-NSK company. We live and work in Novosibirsk Academic City, Russia. We employ around 20 specialists including animators, artists, designers, programmers and testers. The most important news for us is reaching the finalization of the creative process of the game entitled Rig'n'Roll. We would like to congratulate on this event all the people taking part in the project!

- Why has the series earned such a big fan base?

- We succeeded in stepping away from the genre of usual Racing Sim games and introduced the atmosphere of adventures, discoveries and exciting journeys. Furthermore, the profession of a Trucker is very popular in America and Russia, where the series has achieved the greatest accolade.

- The development cycle lasted several years...

- The reason for that is in the huge size of the in-game content, which was added, including many exciting gameplay features. Now we can say that some planned features even had to be left out from the concept.

- Can you name some such ideas that had to be turned down?

- Mainly, that is the sportive component of the game. It had to be considerably reduced, while its full-scale realization was completely put off to the future.

- What challenges did you encounter during the creative process?

- Once again that is the huge scale of the concept. Also we decided to reproduce not a fictitious, but a real-existing territory of California. The latter has its own Laws and road rules, which we were researching carefully in order to adapt them to the game. We have taken into account The American Driving Rules, Trucking Regulations, California Commercial Code that covers the distribution of production of various goods across cities of the State, the Technical details for all the trucks included in the game and much more.

- Name the main innovations that were introduced to the Rig’n’Roll concept.

- The game realism has increased. The physics engine has been vastly improved. We've also introduced the completely new system of missions and the innovational economics model supporting the development of your own Truck Transportation Business.

- Why did you pick California as the place of action?

- Firstly, because of the popularity of the Truck driving profession there. Secondly, because of the uniqueness of trucks and some of them can be seen only on the roads of the U.S. Thirdly, there is a huge landscape variety within this State.

- Have you seen the famous Californian roads?

- Yes! We undertook several expeditions across the ocean and traveled over the entire California. We talked to American truck drivers, sat inside their massive tucks. We used our chance to learn all the specifics of a Truck Driver's profession.

- Do you like driving?

- I like driving very much. By the way, I was learning to drive using our Trucks modeled for the first Hard Truck game. However, it is quite different when you sit inside an American truck. You feel some really special sensations there, the car is moving above the road like a helicopter flying at the low altitude.

- In your opinion, how do the Californian and Russian roads differ from each other?

- The roads in America are different, but you can find those that are of excellent quality, especially the ones with canalized concrete, which we modeled for the in-game Los Angeles area. Though some roads of the region are similar to Russian provincial ones. I really enjoyed the overall clarity of the road network in the U.S. There you can find great road signs providing guidance and it is nearly impossible to lose your way.

- What towns can we visit in the game?

- We modeled more than 40 cities, including such well-known places as Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego, but we also added smaller towns like Bridgeport and Lone Pine, though they are very likeable and represent the spirit of the Wild West. The total length of our road network gets close to approximately 1243 miles or two thousand kilometers. In the real world these roads cover more than 12427 miles or 20 thousand kilometers. We used the unique system for date compression, what helped to make our territories more compact while preserving their authenticity of both the key routes and the cities of California.

- What other useful places are situated along the roads?

- Bars, hotels, petrol, repair and service stations, commercial depots and some additional objects tied to the story of the game.

- What can you say about the in-game plot?

- We have a very intriguing story that is connected to the people surrounding the main character, but we’d like to keep its details a secret for now.

- Tell us more about the main hero of your game.

- His name is Nick Perepelov. He is a young Russian man who arrives to California to pursue his dream and create his own transportation business. He is like a role model being familiar to many people who will surely find some traits in his character that are common to them. Of course, he has an interest to women as well and enjoys spending his time in their company.

- Describe the economic model of the game.

- It has two layers. They are the economics of a driver and the economics of a transportation company. In the first case, the player will have to choose between the wide array of goods to haul and many available routes, the beneficial or intriguing carriage contracts bringing new opportunities. The second situation places you in the competition with different companies working in the state. Besides "Nick Trucking", there are other entrepreneurs struggling for the right to become The Best Transportation Company of California. You will earn money and then you can spend them on tuning your truck and investments made in the development of your business.

- Will it be possible to take on side-quests?

- Sure,and you can find more than 300 of them. The offered tasks will be connected to some new personal and career opportunities for your character.

- How many types of goods are available?

- More than 200 types which are distinguished by their price, fragility, possible kinds of trailers and routes of delivery.

- Is it possible to transport illegal cargo?

- Yes, this possibility exists. More money will be offered for the transportation of such goods, but you have to be cautious with them, since you never know what such contracts will bring in for Nick in the end.

- How smart will the AI competitors be?

- They develop their businesses along with a player's company. They take control over territories, enlarge their zones of operations, improve trucks and hire new drivers.

- What is the role of the road police in the game?

- The police will be on the lookout for pursuing anyone who disobeys the Driving rules. Respectable Californian citizens can report your crimes to the police and the fines in the state are high enough, you also will have to compensate the caused damaged to any kinds of property. You should follow the guidance of the road signs and all the rules to avoid breaking the laws. By the way, the intensity of traffic can be customized. You can fill the roads with very dense traffic or make the highways look deserted.

- How many truck models are represented in the game?

- Rig'n'Roll features 14 trucks models and all of them have real-life technical characteristics and special features. During the development process we kept in touch with Automakers and professional Truck drivers as well.

- Will we be able to tune our car?

- Certainly. There are dozens of new parts available for that ranging from the engines and to a figurine, which you can add to the hood. Some components are unique for the corresponding truck models. Also you can change the exterior of your car, the color of your truck, make windows tinted and so on.

- And for the interior area?

- You will be able to change the decor of your driver's cabin, the appearance of your instrument panel, the style of sensors, the color and decorative properties of paint and varnish coating, install tinted glass and so forth.

- What is the basis for your physics model?

- The technical details of all the truck models represented in the game and also the physical characteristics of road surface, trailers coupling and even aerodynamics.

- What is the damage model like?

- It will feature the deformations of a truck's body, damage of cockpit winnows, wearing of many mechanisms and parts (engine, transmission, the power-supply and cooling systems, the brake system etc.). It is possible to diagnose the damages paying attention to the sensors and lamps on the instrument panel as well as to the behavior of your car. In many instances a breakdown is not an ordinary event, but a process that changes and gets worse over time.

- What will help to navigate around?

- At the early stages of the game, you will have to follow the road signs providing guidance to you. Later on, you can acquire the convenient GPS-device, what will show you the best possible and the shortest route to any point on the map.

- What is the in-game cruise-control function intended for?

- It makes possible to advance to the maximum speed of the truck and automatically supports it over time. In this case the electronic system also checks the distance to the closest obstacles and reduces the speed, where necessary. Thus, a player will be safe from any sudden stops of a car going in front of it.

- What Racing wheel controllers are supported?

- All that are DirectX compatible devices.

- What are the capabilities of your graphics engine?

- Its name is "VWI" or "Virtual World Inventor". We have used it not only in our Hard Truck games, but also in making the professional space and railroad simulations. You can trace the day and night cycle visually. The weather is also changing from time to time and it corresponds to the real weather conditions in the territory of California.

- How will you develop your graphics engine in future?

- The process of the technological development is infinite. Now we are increasingly more oriented for not only strengthening the sensation of realism provided to a player, but to making the picture even more visually stunning.

- What will the soundtrack be like?

- You will hear dozens of different tracks composed by foreign musicians. The compositions diverse in their styles and enrich the atmosphere that will help you to feel your presence inside a real American truck. You can also use your own tracks to add to the audio library with a built-in mp3-player.

- How does this player work?

- You can create your own audio playlists with it stored as "M3U" libraries.

- What about radio chat?

- We have recorded huge amount of dialogues. All the information you hear is useful in one way or another. Sometimes it is just simply interesting to listen to something new. From the negotiations taken place on the radio, you will find out many important details about the events taking place in the game world and you can even discover an exciting and beneficial opportunity to pursue.

- Who voiced over your in-game characters?

- The actors were selected by our publisher. We have a great cast who contributed their voices to this project!

- Do you have some ideas for the new content already?

- All the possible additions including making the game world bigger up to Las Vegas and also some new Trucks and options are already in the process of creation.

- Will the game be published abroad?

- Yes, of course. The foreign name of the project is Rig'n'Roll. By the way, the international version will have all the same features as the Russian one.

- What do you usually do in your free time?

- Oh, I haven't had it for years…

- Name some your favorite video games.

- In this list you will meet such game series as Burnout (2001-2008), Grand Theft Auto (1997-2009) and Need for Speed (1994-2009), but also I will not forget about S.T.A.L.K.E.R. (2007-2009).

- What is The Best game for PC this year?

- It is difficult to say. I had very little free time to play other game projects.